Boston Bruins’ winger Craig Smith Enters COVID Protocol

The Boston Bruins hoped to get through last weekend’s game vs. the Flames unscathed and without any COVID fallout as Calgary has shut things down this week with a widespread outbreak on their roster. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen as right wing Craig Smith has entered the COVID protocol and was not on the ice for Tuesday’s morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena ahead of a home date against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Unfortunately, the Flames placed three more players on COVID protocol on Tuesday morning including Milan Lucic after the Saturday game vs. his old Bruins teammates.

Connor Clifton, John Moore and Linus Ullmark were all missing from Monday’s practice amidst “testing issues” but were present for Tuesday’s skate as it looked like Smith was the only player missing in the Calgary aftermath.

“Say three weeks ago, we’re going to Toronto, and we have to wear a mask. I’m like, ‘[Expletive], we’re starting this all over again,’” said Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy when asked about it on Monday. “We did this in the bubble. You’re limited in your activities away from the rink even though none of the players have tested positive. There’s a lot of that stuff going on with the new regulations. And it’s all for everybody’s good, we understand that, but it does get very tiring.

“Now you see what happens with Calgary, they’re shut down. So are there any after-effects for our guys because we just played there? We hope not in the long run. So, it is tough but that’s the way the world is now, and you’ve got to battle through it.”

With Smith out of the picture and potentially out for the next few weeks as he goes through a possible 10-day quarantine period, Jake DeBrusk was skating on the right wing with Charlie Coyle and Taylor Hall. Here’s what the Boston Bruins line combos and D-pairings looked like at Tuesday’s skate ahead of the game vs. the Golden Knights:

Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak

Hall-Coyle-DeBrusk

Haula-Nosek-Foligno

Blidh-Frederic-Lazar

Forbort-McAvoy

Reilly/Grzelcyk-Carlo

Moore-Clifton

Swayman